


We Will Never Be Na'vi

by GreenFish



Series: The Kentucky Connection [2]
Category: Hunger Games RPF
Genre: F/M, Male-Female Friendship, RPF, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-19
Updated: 2012-08-19
Packaged: 2017-11-12 12:17:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/490907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenFish/pseuds/GreenFish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Josh and I are both crazy, and so it’s good when we have people who are not crazy to kind of calm us down a little bit. But when Josh and I are together we’re so bad for each other.”  - Jennifer Lawrence</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Will Never Be Na'vi

It was his first day off in ten days, and to be perfectly honest, he was a little hung over from the informal “tributes” barbeque they’d thrown the night before, so Josh decided a day inside his suite was just what he needed.

There was a series of long and annoying knocks on the door that he’d come to only recognize as Jen. She had made a habit of doing it to him after she got off of a shoot at 2 a.m. and he was already fast asleep, so by now, it had become her signature. He stomped to the door, sighing loudly and theatrically, as if her coming to his door was an annoyance. 

“What?” he asked, opening the door a crack. She stuck her face up to it, grinning at him. 

“What’s _wrong_ , Hutcherson? Have a long night?”

Of course she’d known about the cast party, but she had been on set shooting, and besides, Jen wasn’t really into the party scene. She tended to keep to herself for the most part. Jen told him once that she had a “social phobia” and preferred to just watch bad TV than try to talk to other people. 

He took off the door latch and swung the door open. “I am just _fine_ , thank you—“ he started to say, but trailed off as he took her in. She was wearing one of those damn tiny white tank tops with no bra and sweat shorts. Did girls have any idea what those did to a guy?

She smirked, oblivious to his ogling. “Oh, yeah, you look like you could take on the world right now.” She reached out for his hair, which was sticking out in several directions, and rustled it between her fingers. 

_Damn it, Josh, don’t think about her right now. Think about anything else. Dad. No, wait – that’s weird. Creepy old men. Basketball. Dirty socks. Oh, God._

“You OK there?” she asked, grinning crookedly at him.

He shook his head quickly. “Uh, yeah, no, I was just –“

She raised her eyebrows at him. “Can I come _in_ , then?” 

“Uh, yeah. Sure, but, uh, I didn’t really, I mean, I haven’t…” 

“I’ve seen your place a ton of times. I know you’re a slob.” And with that, she let herself in, plopping down on the couch in his suite’s living room. 

It had become a habit of theirs – to hang out together when they were both free from filming. Sometimes Liam came over and joined them, since he was in the other suite next to Josh’s, but not always. It was actually better when Liam was around, because he tended to be a grounding force between the two of them. A hotel manager had actually come up one time to ask them to keep the noise level down on a particularly rowdy night.

As it was, though, he was still feeling under the weather, and wasn’t sure how prepared he was to deal with Jen and her friendly attitude right now. He swore he could almost see the outline of her buttock when she sat on the couch, which prompted him to wonder if she was even wearing underwear.

_Damn it, what the hell is wrong with you? You can’t be thinking like this. She has a boyfriend, and you’re not a jackass._

He did pride himself with being a respectable person, after all, but there was something about her that made him nuts. She had this free-wheeling spirit that he could so easily identify with. He had never hung out with someone who made him laugh so easily, while at the same time causing him to act out with the same reckless abandon. To be frank, she gave him a feeling of exhilaration every time they were together. At first, he thought he might be over-identifying with his character from the movie, but the more time they hung out off-set, the more he realized that he really liked her for who she was. 

Sometimes, though, it felt like too much; like his heart was going to burst open if he couldn’t reveal himself. 

It wouldn’t have been the first time he’d fallen head over heels for someone, knowing that it wasn’t going to work out. He just hadn’t been prepared for it to come on so quickly and strongly. Even though he knew it wasn’t a good idea to keep her so close, it was impossible for him to say no to her, ever. 

“What are you watching, anyway?” she asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. 

He had no idea, actually. He’d been sitting in front of the television for the last couple hours, but most of the time he’d spent sending text messages to the other cast members to see if they were feeling as fucked up as he was.

“I dunno,” he said, sliding in next to her. He felt his leg brush against hers, and he quickly moved over so they weren’t touching anymore.

She snickered, unable to let it go, of course. “What?” she said. “You afraid I have cooties?”

“No,” he said, unable to resist, as he reached up and rubbed her face, “but you should be aware that _I_ have them!”

She burst into giggles, as she always did, shoving him hard enough to throw him to the other end of the couch. “Shut it, you nerd,” she said, picking up the remote. “I’m watching TV.”

===

By 5 p.m., they had ordered a ridiculous amount of Chinese food to be delivered and while they were waiting for it, Jen said, “Do you know that in China, they eat their pets?”

“Dude. What is _wrong_ with you?” he asked her. She knew he was a big animal lover, and had several dogs at his house in L.A., who were currently being watched by his roommate. He suddenly had an urge to call and check up on them.

“No, I’m serious – I had this Chinese friend in high school, who actually _grew up_ in China, and she told me that they got a dog as a pet, but once it was a couple years old, her dad killed it and they ate it for a big family dinner.”

“That’s so disgusting.”

“ _I’m_ not the one that ate my dog – I’m just relaying information.”

“And why would you tell me this right _before_ we’re about to eat Chinese food?”

“Sorry, it just popped into my head.”

“I really don’t know about you sometimes,” he said, looking over at her. 

She grinned at him, biting her lower lip. “You know you love me!” she grinned.

_Unfortunately, yes,_ he thought. “Yeah, well,” he said, getting up to grab the money for the delivery guy. “Our ‘dog’ should be arriving any minute, I think.”

“I hear it tastes like chicken.”

“Really?”

“No, of course not! I mean, I didn’t ask her what it tasted like, you sicko.”

===

“Dude – leave this on,” Josh said, pointing at the TV. They had long since finished their dinner, take-out containers scattered across the kitchen table. 

“What is this?”

“I dunno, but it looks awesome.” On screen, a large crocodile snapped at a turtle floating on the water.

“Aw! Poor turtle!” Jen cooed. “He was so cute.”

Josh swiped her arm lightly. “So you’ll eat dogs, but not turtles?”

“Who eats turtles?”

“Haven’t you ever heard of turtle soup?” When Jen made a face, he said, “It’s a Cajun dish, my brother ordered it this one time we went to New Orleans.”

“New Ah-lans,” Jen replied in a fake southern drawl.

“Wow, that was amazing. You should totally be an actor.”

“I know, right?” Jen asked, grinning. “Here, let me try something on you.”

She leaned over towards him, her face so close to his, her breath mingling with his. He felt his jaw moving back and forth. It was a nervous habit he had. 

“OK, you’re the turtle, and I’m the crocodile.”

“O-okay,” he stuttered, still trying to adjust to the proximity of her lips to his. God, they were so full. And perfect. And—

“You sure look tasty,” she purred in a low voice. She smacked her lips together, licking them slowly. 

“No,” he said in a high-pitched voice, trying to play along. “I’m just a turtle. Don’t eat me!”

She immediately snorted and burst into giggles upon hearing him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Oh my God, just – stop. That is too funny!”

He grinned, trying to ignore the feeling that was rushing into his lower belly. She pushed back from him, still laughing. 

“Oscar-worthy material, there, Lawrence. What can I say?” he smirked.

She laughed for a few more seconds, imitating his turtle voice. “I’m a turtle!” she squealed. “Nooo!”

“Mmmm,” he said, losing himself in the moment, and climbed atop her legs. He adopted her low crocodile voice. “But you just look so tasty, young turtle! I just want to eat you!” He pretended to snap at her neck and face, as she pushed at him and squealed, but he kept at it. Before he could think about what he was doing, he blew a hard raspberry on her neck. She burst out laughing, and pushed him off, onto the floor. 

“Stop! Stop!” she yelled, still laughing. “You are the worst!”

“You started it!” he said, looking up at her, chuckling. Her cheeks were flushed with laughter, and her eyes smiled at him. The ache in his stomach grew stronger.

“No, you,” she said, kicking at his leg.

“You,” he said, pushing himself up, and jumping on the couch again. This time, he shoved up against her, their hips and thighs pressed together.

“Whatever,” she murmured, glancing over at him. For a second, she just stared at him, smiling slightly, and he almost felt like – it was that half-second that, if it was a movie, they might have kissed. His lips parted slightly, and he felt his arm starting to move, but when he realized what he was doing, he pressed his mouth together, swallowing hard. 

_It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He couldn’t do this._

He broke the stare, looking down at his hands, which were now folded awkwardly in his lap. Kneading his lips, he racked his brain for a new conversation topic.

“You know what crocodiles remind me of?” he asked suddenly.

“What?” she asked.

“Avatar. You know, the movie.”

“Oh, my God!” Jen said, slugging him in the arm, hard. She did that whenever she got excited. “That is one of my favorite movies!”

“Me, too!” he said, jumping up from the couch. They started quoting lines together.

“’But I’ve already chosen,’” Josh quoted. “’But this woman must also choose me.’”

Jen looked at him in mock seriousness. “’She already has,’” she replied.

“Oh, oh – and, ‘You are not in Kansas anymore,’” Josh said in a Southern accent. “’You are on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen.’”

“’Just relax and let your mind go blank, Sully. That shouldn’t be too hard for you.’” Jen snorted.

“Ha!” Josh laughed. “Yes!”

For the next ten minutes, they discussed Pandora and everything they had enjoyed about the world. How wonderful it would be to live there. How carefree it was. How it was everything Earth was not. In fact, they had gotten so worked up about it that a few minutes later, they were both standing up, yelling at each other.

“When Jake says the prayer for the animal he hunted and killed—“ Jen started.

“And he’s giving the energy back to nature, oh my God!” Josh said. “Yes! That part killed me!”

“And then he rides the mountain banshee!”

“Oh my God! Favorite part!”

“I know, I was practically crying at that point!” Jen screamed. “It was so amazing!”

“I know,” Josh said, grabbing both of her arms. He got very serious for a half-second, staring at her in the eyes. “But you know what the worst part is?”

“What?” she asked, her face turning sober.

“That we’ll never get to be Na’vi!”

“Nooo!” Jen screamed at the same time he did, and they fell on the couch together, moaning loudly. “Why is our perfect world not real?”

“I don’t know!” he yelled back.

Just then, the door burst open, and Liam ran in, stopping short when he saw them on the couch. 

“Hey! Are you guys OK? I heard screaming!” His eyes moved over the two of them, a worried expression on his face.

Josh and Jen looked at each other and immediately started cracking up. It was a solid thirty seconds before either of them could even talk. 

“Can you --?” Josh asked, trying to stop laughing, but Jen just shook her head, still unable to speak. He forced himself to breathe, and then, said, “We were just – we were talking about Avatar, you know, the movie, and how we’d never be able to be Na’vi, you know, the people that live on Pandora, and just…” He burst out laughing again, prompting Jen to start giggling anew. A second later, she fell off the couch.

Liam looked down at her, her entire body shaking with laughter, and Josh, on the couch, holding his stomach as he bent over, trying to calm himself down. 

“You were… screaming because you’ll never be able to live on Pandora?” Liam asked, incredulous. “It sounded like someone was _dying_ in here.”

Josh and Jen looked at each other again. They both snorted, and Jen started giggling all over again. 

Josh breathed heavily, trying to stop laughing. “I’m – I’m sorry, it’s just – yeah, that was, that was it.”

“God,” Liam said, still staring. “There is really something wrong with you two.” He shook his head and walked out, shutting the door behind him.

They both immediately started giggling again, Josh offering Jen a hand back up on the couch. “We are kind of crazy, aren’t we?” Josh asked, as they settled back in.

Jen sighed, still smiling. “Yeah.” She turned to look at Josh. “But, you know, if we ever _were_ Na’vi, you would make a good mate.”

Josh turned to look at her, his mouth dropping slightly. _Did she really say that? Oh God_. He swallowed about three times before opening his mouth. “Are you— d’you mean that?” he asked. He searched her eyes, then her face. She had the hint of a smile on her lips. 

Her smile grew wider. “Sure – I mean, if _Nick_ wasn’t there, you know, then, yeah.” She smirked at him, knowing that she’d gotten him on some level, though she was probably unaware of how deep it had actually gone.

“You’re the worst, you know that?”

She grinned, then, and just like that, it was business as usual. “You love it.”

“Yeah. Like I love pee in my Corn Flakes.”

“You like _pee_ in your Corn Flakes? Ew.”

“Shut up, Lawrence,” he said, slugging her lightly on the arm. 

===

END

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. I started this a while ago when I saw [this interview](http://mockingjay.net/2011/05/19/jennifer-lawrence-hunger-games-liam-hemsworth-josh-hutcherson/) and wanted to write a story about it. I just love their flirty friendship. Hope you enjoyed.


End file.
